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Daily Newspaper and Travel Guide
for Pecos Country of West Texas
Sports
April 23, 2001
Pecos' hitting luck improves in 11-5 victory
PECOS, April 23, 2001 - All the bad hitting luck the Pecos Eagles had in
their loss to Fabens on Thursday carried over for one inning on Friday
against the Canutillo Golden Eagles. But after falling behind by a 2-0
score, the Eagles came back to score in each of the next five innings and
ended up winning by an 11-6 final score.
Pecos tied the game in the second inning off Julian Lopez, took a 4-2
lead in the third off Barney Rodriguez' two-run double and then scored
five more times in the fourth, with Angel Villalobos' three-run home run
the big hit of that inning. Canutillo then took advantage of a couple of
Pecos mistakes to cut their 9-2 deficit to 9-5 in the bottom of the fourth,
but the Eagles added single runs in the fifth and sixth innings, while
Rodriguez was able to shut down the Golden Eagles the rest of the way to
improve his record to 6-0 on the season.
"We played real well, Barney did a good job and we played good defense,"
Eagles' coach Bubba Williams said. "We didn't hit it right at them, we
hit it in the gaps this time."
The Eagles spend most of Thursday's game against Fabens watching the
Wildcats turn hard-hit balls into outs. This time, that hurt the Eagles
only in the first inning, when Alex Garcia hit into a double play after
Richard Rodriguez reached base against Lopez to start the game.
"They turned a double play on us in the first inning, but you've just
got to give them credit. We hit the ball hard, their kid made a good play
and turned a double play," Williams said.
Canutillo had taken the lead on a walk to Carlos Torres, singles by
Jesse Ramirez and Eddie Hita and a sacrifice by Paco Molinar. The Eagles
tied the game after David Elkins was hit by a pitch, thanks to two wild
pitches, an error by Ramirez on Matthew Levario's grounder and an RBI single
by Richard Rodriguez.
In the second, Barney Rodriguez' go-ahead double scored Garcia and Mason
Abila, while in the fourth Abila had a two-run double to score Garcia and
Oscar Parada, and Villalobos hit his third home run of the season after
Lopez walked Barney Rodriguez.
Canutillo got back into the game in the fifth with two outs, thanks
to a throwing error, a passed ball and Torres' RBI double, but the Eagles
got two runs back in the fifth and sixth innings, while Barney Rodriguez
survived a two on none out jam in the sixth before closing things out with
a relatively easy seventh inning.
"We made a couple of errors when they scored, but the kids kept their
composure and came back and scored a couple more runs," Williams said.
The win improved Pecos' season record to 16-6 and kept them in a tie
for first in the District 2-4A standings with San Elizario, which rallied
on Friday to win at Fabens, 5-2. Pecos closes out regular season play this
Friday at San Elizario, but before then will go to El Paso Mountain View
for a 5 p.m. game on Tuesday. The Lobos remain winless on the season after
their 14-4 loss to Clint on Friday.
Eagles survive late scare, finish district undefeated
By JON FULBRIGHT
Staff Writer
PECOS, April 23, 2001 - That perfect district record the Pecos Eagles
were hoping for almost vanished with the wind Friday afternoon against
the San Elizario Eagles.
Pecos was seemingly cruising along to their 10th District
2-4A victory in as many games, as they led the visiting Eagles by a 6-1
score after four innings at Martinez Field. But things got a lot more exciting
for the host Eagle squad after that, as San Elizario fought back three
times and had the tying runs on second and third base in the seventh inning
before Pecos escaped with a 9-7 win.
"We were a little tight. We worked hard to have a perfect season, and
we were a little nervous, and we knew San Eli would come in and play hard
because they were playing for second place," said Eagles' coach Tammy Walls,
whose team already had clinched their third straight district title going
into Friday's game.
San Elizario had gotten their first two runners on in the game thanks
to walks, then loaded the based with two outs in the first off pitcher
Stephanie Herrera. But she was able to strike out Yadira Hernandez to end
the inning, and for the next 3½ innings, everything pretty much
went Pecos' way, even though the Eagles had their own strikeout problems
with pitcher Valerie Soto.
Both she and Herrera ended up fanning nine batters, but Soto was hurt
by walks and wild pitches throughout the game. In the first inning, she
walked Kathy Maldonado and Rebecca Wein and hit Herrera with a pitch in-between,
while Wein's walk came on a wild pitch ball four that scored Maldonado.
Herrera and Wein then came home on Leslie Rodriguez' single to center field.
Rodriguez' hit was really the only solid shot the Eagles had off Soto
in the early innings. They wasted a bloop double by Maldonado in the second,
while in the third they scored two more times, on another bloop double
by Wein, a walk to Ashley Salcido and a two run bloop single by Alexa Marquez.
San Eli had gotten on the scoreboard in t he top of the third on three
hits and a bases-loaded walk by Herrera, but were down 6-1 in the fourth,
when Maldonado walked, stole second and came all the way around on throwing
errors by catcher Jessica Rivera and center fielder Diana Solis.
But things changed after that. Soto tripled to open the fifth inning,
and both she and Hernandez scored when her hit to right field got past
a diving Neftali Salgado for a home run, making it 6-3. That proved to
be a popular play, because in the bottom of the fifth Rodriguez came up
with an inside-the-park home run on the exact same play, as she bounced
an eye-high pitch past Linda Aguilar to make it 7-3. But in the top of
the sixth Aguilar did the same thing to new right fielder Bre'Ann Windham,
this one for a ground-rule double to start the inning.
Herrera walked one batter then got two outs before Soto lifted a fly
ball to right-center that Windham had bounce out of her glove. Two runs
scored and April Valencia then doubled to left-center field, and the Eagles'
lead was down to one run.
Herrera then got Hernandez to end the inning, and Maldonado would then
reach on an infield hit, steal second and come around on a wild pitch to
make it an 8-6 game. Herrera walked on that play and then was safe at second
when shortstop Vicki Trevizo dropped a throw in a rundown, and Wein then
singled to center to score Herrera.
Up by three and with none out, Pecos had a chance to score more, but
Soto struck out the side, and then with one out in the seventh, Rivera
walked and scored when Aguilar tripled to center field. Herrera then walked
Audra Dominguez and wild pitched her to second, but Aguilar was unable
to score on the play, and Herrera then got Solis for her ninth strikeout,
and ended the game by getting Trevizo to ground out to Salcido at shortstop.
"We have three seniors, but we're still a young team," said Walls, as
Herrera and both right fielders are all freshmen. "Their batters were having
trouble catching up with her pitches, so I asked her to take something
off of it, so if they did hit the ball it would go to center field or left
field."
The win improved Pecos' overall record to 13-8, while San Elizario ended
up in third place in District 2-4A with a 6-4 record, 10-11 overall. They'll
face El Paso Parkland or El Paso Riverside in the bi-district round of
the Class 4A playoffs, while the Eagles will take a break until next week,
when they'll begin play with an area round against either Andrews or Borger
sometime between May 1 and May 5.
Youth softball deadline near, sign-ups for T-ball continue
PECOS, April 23, 2001 - Friday is the deadline for girls ages 7-12 to register
for The Reeves County Community Sports and Recreation Department youth
softball program, while sign-ups continue for another month for the recreation
department's youth T-ball program.
Registration fee for softball or T-ball is $10 per player and both parents
must sign a form and bring their child's birth certificate when registering
at the RCCRD office in the old Pecos High School gym.
The T-ball program is open to boys and girls between the ages of 4 and
7, with a deadline of May 24 to register.
For further information, call the recreation department at 447-9776.
Pecos Enterprise
York M. "Smokey" Briggs, Publisher
Division of Buckner News Alliance, Inc.
324 S. Cedar St., Pecos, TX 79772
Phone 915-445-5475, FAX 915-445-4321
e-mail news@pecos.net
Associated Press text, photo, graphic, audio and/or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium.
Copyright 2000 by Pecos Enterprise
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